Notes:
This was my first 1.09 character, and also my first Classic character. This character is untwinked, and did no magic finding at all, although I did rerun areas for experience.

Right away, my normal strategies for LoD didn't work. There are no socketed body armors in Classic, and also no prefixes that give sockets. So no 3-socket ringmail full of topazes. No runes, either. You can't equip a merc in Classic, so my quest rogue was pretty useless and I didn't bother to keep her around. I was sad each time my quest reward merc inevitably died (and couldn't be resurrected! Talk about hard core!).

There is a Players 8 command in 1.09. This was pretty useful. I put points into strength early and shopped a socketed scepter to thwack things with. Frost Nova was handy to slow down enemies as I killed them one at a time in melee. Eventually, static field was added to the routine, but mana was a problem (you can't buy mana pots in 1.09).

I shopped a staff with Blaze for Andariel. She foolishly followed my flaming footsteps in circles until she died.

I put extra points into Static Field to increase the range. At times, I regretted spending the points that way, but the extra safety was worth it.

At lvl 18, I couldn't kill things in melee on Players 8 efficiently anymore. I acquired a 3-socket long bow and ran Act 1 Shrines until I had 3 perfect emeralds. The poison damage from that bow got me all the way to Nightmare, where I got Frozen Orb.

I needed lots of +mana gear to orb effectively. No merc of course meant no Insight (I've gotten so spoiled!). Sometimes I'd run low on mana potions and tp to town just to get healed to get my mana back.

In Classic, NM and Hell Duriel are both immune to cold. But static field has no cap. Static + health pots + Thunderstorm = win. It helps that Dex has nothing to do with shield block percentage in Classic. Natsume has 44% block chance with that tower shield.

NM Flayer Jungle was a great place to lvl on Players 8 from 42 to 50. With Frozen Orb maxed, I could kill just about anything (and many times, everything on the screen at once) after 2 or 3 statics.

I entered Hell at lvl 52. Corpsefire was Cold Immune, so I killed him with Thunderstorm (about 7 points in it, maybe less, 1 lightning mastery). That took a while. I decided that I would need a stronger Thunderstorm to progress through Hell, so I went back to gain more levels in NM.

I tried Players 8 NM Chaos Sanctuary, but that was slow. I used lots of mana pots on De Seis' giant pack of oblivion knights. The experience didn't even seem that great.

NM Cows on Players 5 however... That was amazing experience. The Cows in 1.09 Classic are not nearly as tough as the ones in later patches, and they give more exp and better drops, too! I killed cows until lvl 60.

I found the 3-socket Mask and the Heavenly Garb while running cows. Both of those items were extremely helpful in solving the mana problems. Once I had over 400 mana, the 3 points in Warmth kicked in and I didn't have to drink quite as many pots.

The rest of Hell didn't present much difficulty. I knew from a previous Blizzard sorc (in 1.12) that almost the entire Claw Viper Temple is immune to cold, so I muled a Staff of Kings and a Viper Amulet from another character (who was in Normal... you can use quest items from other difficulties in 1.09). That's the cheesiest thing I've ever done in this game. I should probably go back and do the quest if I possibly can.

Static + Thunderstorm took out Cold Immunes just fine. The only Cold+Lightning immunes I encountered were 2 Oblivion Knight bosses in Chaos Sanctuary. I tried to kill them by shopping a staff with +3 to Firewall, but without my shield my resists were too low and I very nearly died. I was afraid that De Seis would be Lightning Immune and I would have to clear the whole Sanctuary over again, but he wasn't.

It did take a long time for my Thunderstorm to kill all those Oblivion Knights though. There were so many bone spirits on the screen that some of them were invisible. They didn't do invisible damage. Ouch. I had only 2 full rejuvs left for Diablo.

Diablo's Lightning Hose starts right at his feet even in Hell in 1.09 Classic. I was lucky to have lightning resist and quick potion reflexes.

Other than that, static plus a few frozen orbs took him out.

Deaths: 2
One to a Multishot Lightning Enchanted Archer boss in NM Countess' Tower, and one to a Fire Enchanted doll boss in NM Durance on Players 8.

Hellforge: Just gems! I intend to keep Natsume in Classic, so she did collect her Hellforge quest rewards.

Best Finds:
Probably the tri res boots and wand she is wearing. Also Tancred's Hobnails, which was a grailer for me.

Next: This character was made for HF rushing (I want Beta Bramble), so that's what I will do. I might also put on some magic find gear and look for a 1.09 Ravenclaw. If I get more levels, the points will go into Lightning Mastery, then Teleport for convenience. I should try Hell Cows and see how that goes.

Thanks for reading, and thanks to RobbyD (and the entire SPF) for the great guides to 1.09 and Classic!

Congrats!
Maybe I'll try a classic char sometime... Is there any major reason to not try it in 1.13? I suppose there would be synergies?
I know you did it for beta bramble HF rushing, sot hat's why you did 1.09.

I played more 1.09 classic than any other patch classic/lod setting I think. Not for a long time though. Using level 1 glacial spike or chain lightning and then hitting lvl 24 and getting that lvl 1 blizz + lvl 1 thunderstorm always felt so good. And then again at level 30 with the end-skill of frozen orb.

I currently play a lot of classic in 1.06b and 1.13d. Think I'll foray back into 1.09 and get a super overpowered bowzon going or something. I miss cows being so good.

@pharphis - Thanks! Yes, there would be synergies in Classic 1.10 and later. Also, the monsters in Hell would be a lot stronger, so you'd probably have to make good use of those synergies. I wanted to try out Thunderstorm, which was another reason for 1.09. Hardcore... probably not. I don't mind hardcore so much in a turn-based game (like Crawl, a roguelike I played a bit), but in a more reflex-based game like D2 I prefer SC. Captain Falcon was all like, "Show me your moves!" so I had to prove that I can time travel and be in multiple places at once. He'll just have to deal for now. =)

@VThief - Thanks! Classic is fun. Yeah, that Glacial Spike > Blizzard > Orb progression was really sweet. If I make another 1.09 character it probably will be a zon for cows, since I never played on Cattle.net. Or maybe a WW barb with a lance (weapon speed doesn't matter in classic). The ring is nice for the fcr and dual res, although a rare with more +mana would be ideal for this character. I had more fhr on my armor before I put on the Heavenly Garb for mana. Maybe if I gain a few levels I can switch to a nice rare if I find one.

Not to mention leveling in classic is very different. Or was that fixed by 1.09?

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I don't know, since this is my first Classic character and also my first 1.09 character. Monsters in Hell were not giving much experience at all, even when I was the same level as the area. There were also fewer unique packs, although RobbyD said that was part of 1.09 and not just Classic.

Leveling in classic 1.09 is a far far easier than it was in earlier patches (at least 1.06b backwards took a LOT more work) especially with cows at their height of over-easy-xp and working players8 (up to players64 works, right?).

1.09 is a far better patch for classic than 1.10+ because more builds are viable and cows combined with the player setting make for relatively easy leveling. Leveling is slower because monster levels aren't determined by the area level and because unique packs don't give the large boost of exp it does in 1.10+

I would recommend that you put more points in teleport and/or warmth as well as energy because mana issues are big in classic, especially with no shopable mana potions.

Congrats!
Maybe I'll try a classic char sometime... Is there any major reason to not try it in 1.13?

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The main problem is Immunes. You gain fewer levels and have far fewer + Skills, so Immunes can be a big problem even for sorcs. Only barbarians and Necroes have "easy solutions", like a bone/summoner or WW/Berserker.
It is a totally diff. game, though. Rares overtake most of the unique/RW/Set slots you normally see in LoD, an sockets costs you 6 Pskulls + a SoJ